Houston Police Officers Training in Blood Draws-Houston DWI Lawyers
Houston police officers are being trained in the art of drawing blood, quite literally at that. According to this report, seven officers are currently undergoing a training program that the Houston Police Department hopes will cut the time it takes to test suspects for alcohol use after an accident.
The program will run for 40 days. The officers will first practice on an artificial arm, before moving on to drawing blood from a person. Officers believe that with this training, they will be able to eliminate the need to go to a hospital for a blood draw after a crash. The officers will have to complete the program, and undergo testing before they can begin to draw blood. According to the Houston Police Department, they wants to make it harder for people to drink and drive.
We have no problem with the desire to reduct the number of people that drink and drive, but we have to hope that this enthusiasm for speed and efficiency in testing for BAC levels doesn’t end with flagrant violations of citizen rights, erroneous testing and other problems. As Houston DWI lawyers, we’ve noticed that in the quest to rid the streets of intoxicated drivers, law enforcement agencies tend to take extreme measures that ultimately end with the whole program turning into a sham or failure.
One example is the bill last year that would have allowed sobriety checkpoints back into Texas again. It’s common knowledge that sobriety checkpoints across many states have not worked the way they are meant to. Just like red light cameras in many cities have turned into cash cows, with little impact on accident rates, sobriety checkpoints have evolved into moneymaking exercises for local police departments. In states like California, many checkpoints focus harder on seizing vehicles belonging to unlicensed motorists, than on puling over drunk drivers. Millions of dollars are spent on these checkpoints, dollars that ultimately go into filling local coffers, with no impact on motorist safety or DWI rates.
If you have been charged with DWI, contact the DWI lawyers at The Kahn Law Firm today for a free consultation by calling 713-226-9900. Remember, you only have 15 days from the date of your DWI arrest to request a hearing with DPS to try to keep your drivers license from being suspended automatically.
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